FilmmakerTom Fassaert (Naarden, 1979) grew up in the Netherlands and partly in South Africa. These extreme differences already opened his eyes at a young age. But it was his dad's obsession with making home movies that undoubtedly planted the first seeds that ultimately grew into Fassaert's passion for film.

Tom Fassaert debuted with his feature length documentary De engel van Doel (An angel in Doel) about a small Belgian village threatened with demolition. It premiered at the Berlinale, screened at +50 festivals worldwide and won several international awards. Fassaert's second feature length documentary is A family affair. A film that explores the delicate terrain along the fault lines of his own family. It was the Opening Film of IDFA 2015 where Fassaert also received the prestigious Prins Bernhard Cultuur Fonds Documentary Award for his works. After winning the Special Jury Award at IDFA, the film started its journey to many international festivals and received numerous awards. It recently won the Gouden Kalf (Dutch Academy Award) for best long documentary, was nominated for the European Film Award 2016 and is acquired by Netflix to be broadcasted globally. Variety recently named Fassaert ‘One of the Ten Docu-makers to Watch.

Parallel to his passion for filmmaking Tom Fassaert also teaches and coaches at (international) film schools and the IDFA Mediafonds workshop.